Vaccinations are not supposed to be mandatory for all children for various reasons. First, some parents have spiritual beliefs resisting their children’s immunization (Savulescu et al., 2021). When such parents are forced to vaccinate their children, the First Amendment that gives every citizen a right to exercise their religion freely could be violated. Every citizen is free to participate in their beliefs without any interference, and there is no federal law requiring every person to get vaccinated. People’s beliefs should be respected, and they should not be forced to vaccinate their children. Instead of making vaccination for all children compulsory, there is a need for the government to create public health awareness about this inoculation.
Additionally, some parents also have questions about and fears of vaccination. For example, a number of parents argue that they do not understand the side effects (Gualano et al., 2019). This results in some parents choosing not to immunize their children. When vaccination is mandatory for every child before starting school, the unvaccinated ones may miss out on the education opportunity (Savulescu et al., 2021). Those children are punished over their parents’ decision and the families that cannot afford alternative forms of schooling experience educational disparities.
Second, vaccination should not be mandatory because some serums can be harmful. Some local reactions such as irritability and fever occur after some vaccines have been administered (Gualano et al., 2019). Moreover, after 2.4 million polio doses, vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP) is believed to occur, causing irreversible complications, including death, which explains why children inoculation does not have to be compulsory (Gualano et al., 2019). For this reason, vaccination should not be mandatory for all children.
References
Gualano, M. R., Olivero, E., Voglino, G., Corezzi, M., Rossello, P., Vicentini, C., Bert, F., & Siliquini, R. (2019). Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs towards compulsory vaccination: a systematic review. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, 15(4), 918–931. Web.
Savulescu, J., Giubilini, A., & Danchin, M. (2021). Global ethical considerations regarding mandatory vaccination in children. The Journal of Pediatrics, 231, 10-16. Web.